Saturday, 15 January 2011

Getting The Police Priorities Right, For Once

Sylvester Akapalara, 17, of Streatham, was shot dead on the Pelican Estate in Peckham, south London, last month.

Hundreds of flyers were put up linked to a website called Stop Snitching, warning: "Be smart. Don't snitch."

And immediately, the usual suspects were rushing to the media to condemn this message, and blame the police for not taking acti…

Wait. What?

A Damilola Taylor Trust spokesman said: "Police should be trying to find out who put these leaflets out."

Well, no. I think police have enough on their plates with trying to find the murderer…

Don’t you?

Gary Trowsdale, from the Damilola Taylor Trust, which helps young people in inner-city communities, said: "The police should be stamping down and trying to find out who put these leaflets out and taking criminal prosecutions against them.

"It's well beyond irresponsible. It's disgraceful and it is not protecting the community."

Oh, FFS..! Who exactly is it that's responsible for a generation growing up and seeing the police as 'the enemy', exactly?

Seeing a bandwagon rolling by, a local politician couldn’t wait to jump aboard:

London Assembly Green Party member Jenny Jones, who lives near the estate where the flyers were posted, said she was "shocked" by the leaflets.

If the leaflets shocked her, what did she think of the murder?

And the reason the police are not dropping everything and seizing laser printers all over Peckham?

But a police spokesman said there was no active investigation into the flyers as posting them did not appear to be a criminal offence.

12 comments:

lt's very good advice when you are living in such an area. Even a suspicion of you being a snitch can at worst put your life in danger and at best make your life sheer hell. lt's ok people who don't live there pontificating about it but it's simply not good for your future being known as a snitch.

The site has nothing on it except the 'poster' ... pity they didn't use spellcheck. :)

This is South London and the way it works. As the Muslims move up from Tooting and the "gangstas" move over from Streatham and Brixton those of us who live nearby (and that includes decent whites, W Indians and Asians) will increasingly decide to move away. Personally I'd quite like the police near me to be armed - there is a chance I'll get shot be them but much less than the chance I'll get shanked by LeDuane, Jayden, Ahmed or Mumtaz

It might make sensible advice in the short term, but very, very bad advice in the long term. Like it or not, these people need to stop treating the police as 'the enemy'.

As P Toynbee points out, the risk of harm from their fellow 'community members' is much, much greater.

And there's no Street Thug Standards Division to lodge an official complaint with if they go too far...

"Sorry, but aren't you a complainer?"

Yes, but I know what to complain about, and when not to complain.

As the Filthy Engineer points out, if these leaflets are so offensive (not just for their woefully-ignorant spelling), how about these 'community activists' go around taking them down, and reminding people that they owe no civic duty to thug scum?

But a police spokesman said there was no active investigation into the flyers as posting them did not appear to be a criminal offence.

If encouraging people not to vote is an offence, then surely encouraging people to withold evidence regarding an ongoing investigation MUST be....???

And what happened to the idea, that we were informed about in Police trainning, whereby if a policeman sees something he thinks should be an offence, but isn't, then he can take them to court for a judges decission?

The Police made the mistake of not going in hard when the yardies and intimidation were in their infancy. Part of the reason may have been the Police having to tread carefully after the Macpherson report.A simple conclusion might be that the Macpherson report has been responsible for the deaths of a number of black youths....

@Furor Teutonicus And what happened to the idea, that we were informed about in Police trainning, whereby if a policeman sees something he thinks should be an offence, but isn't, then he can take them to court for a judges decission?